William Haggas and Cieren Fallon hit the jackpot in Sydney as Lake Forest swooped late and fast to land the $10million James Squire Golden Eagle at Rosehill.
French star Lazzat, last seen romping home in the Group One Prix Maurice de Gheest, made a bold bid to maintain his unbeaten record and led entering the final furlong.
However, Fallon drove Lake Forest through a gap on the inside to get up in the closing stages and score by half a length.
The victor picked up over £2.8m in prize money and Fallon said: “Unbelievable. Wow, I can’t believe it. Lost for words.
“Everything went to Plan A. Tuck in, we knew we had a lot of speed and had to save his turn of foot. I thought if we used too much energy early on, we’d have been taking away our turn of foot. So I had to ride him quite brave and hope we got a bit of luck. And we got a few gaps up there.”
Lake Forest claimed Gimcrack glory last year and was runner-up to Inisherin in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot this term.
He stepped up to seven and a half furlongs down under and Fallon added: “I had a lot of belief in him. In all of his races, he’d been crying out for a bit further.
“I knew with the bend it would allow us to fill him up around the bend. It got a bit tight and I saved as much ground as I could up the inside and he showed his turn of foot towards the end and hit the line very strongly.
“This is remarkable. Money-wise, you can’t beat it. He’s a superstar, he’s such an easy ride.”
Haggas extended his excellent record in major Australian races, having previously enjoyed great success with the likes of Addeybb and Dubai Honour.
Stable representative Isabella Paul said: “Sydney is like a second home now, I hope we might get citizenship at some stage.”
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